Grilled Chicken

 
Terraza Carmona restaurant in Vera (Almería).  Pan grilled chicken breast – not dry and overcooked – and done with garlic. Sitting on some pan fried potato slices under there; some tomato & a slice of grilled eggplant.  Simple enough.  Tasty.  Even kids might like it.

Chicken Tikki Masala

This maybe looks like a good one.  Be not fooled.

Due to the continuing programming/web-site-building exercise I am still eating quick and easy.  In this case, it was a disappointment. 

We’re talking a kilo [2#] of cubes of chicken breast, a few of those cute little potatoes, and a jar (!) of tikki masala sauce.

Okay, I copped out again and went for a prepared product.  I’ve made tikki masala before (see here. amchar masala actually) and it’s got a lot of ingredients and takes a while to prepare.  Not having time for that sort of thing I just bought a jar of masala at the supermarket, cooked the chicken chunks in a frying pan and tossed the lot into a pot with the masala sauce and cooked it together for 20 minutes or so.

Tasty… well not really.  The limitations of a commercial product were evident here.  Although a bit spicy it did not have any significant flavour.  Nothing that excited the taste buds.   Thus, this one wasn’t a winner.  Thus #2, lesson learned; make a load of masala all at once and store some away for occasions such as this. 

But, hey! It was easy – that’s got something going for it.

Basque Chicken – Easy Variant

I haven’t posted a recipe since September but I haven’t been cooking either.  Since this blog is about what I actually do,  there hasn’t been anything of that nature to write about.  To get back into the swing of things I’m repeating one of my favorite easy recipes (that I’ve written about a couple of times before [1] [2]. Although the recipe’s been in here twice before I’ll give you this variant, slightly different, as I actually made it this time (it’s never the same twice).

This time it looks like this:

 

It’s pretty simple.  Made from, more or less, the following ingredients

 

 

Thus, the ingredients that require any work on our part are:  some chicken, a green pepper, an onion and 4 cloves of garlic.  Other ingredients are required but those others don’t need to be prepared.

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Basque Chicken

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 1 kg chicken (whole, cut up or pieces) [1#]
• 1 green pepper, julienne
• 1 onion, julienne
• 4 cloves garlic, brunoise [diced fine]
• 3 tomatoes (oops, I forgot that they had to be prepared – peeled and deseeded and diced would be good [or use a jar of strained tomatoes)
• 2 C dry white wine
• 1 red chili pepper
• oil
• salt
• pepper

Procedure

1. Salt and pepper the chicken
2. Oil into a hot pot and brown the chicken. for color
3. Remove chicken, add onions, soften
4. Add garlic and peppers, soften
5. Add tomatoes, stir
6. Add chicken
7. Wine to cover, add chili pepper, bring to a boil
8. Lower the heat, cover, simmer for 20 minutes
9. Remove chicken and vegetables, leaving the “sauce”.  Hold the chicken/vegs warm (cover with foil maybe)
10. Remove the chili pepper and toss away
11. Reduce the sauce to a saucy consistency (coats the back of a spoon)
    • The dish can be held at this point for a good little while
12. Return chicken/vegs to sauce, crank the heat to quickly warm it up
13. Serve

Notes

1. I buy a whole chicken and cut it up; using the carcass to make stock
2. Start with a pot that’s big enough to hold all the ingredients; one that you can cover
3. Sometimes I do the chicken first, sometimes the veggies
4. This is the only point where the chicken picks up color so brown them well
5. “Real” Basque Chicken also Serrano ham in the recipe.  I left it out this time.

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"Mesa Grill" Chicken

Not bad looking.

So, you take the Mesa Grill Steak Rub and use it on chicken instead. It's to die for.

Chicken Basque Style : Poulet Sauté Basquaise : Lesson 10 : Part 1 : LCB at Home

As previously mentioned, this one's an old favorite. Also great for pot-luck suppers, keeps well, good cold, reheats alright, not pricey - all the characteristics of a regular family dish. Make it often.

The plating is, bottom-up: fried prosciutto (Italian air dried ham - should have been Iberian ham but that's hard to find). The vegetable mix (green peppers, onions, tomato), the sautéed chicken, topped with the reduced cooking liquid (essentially a tomato/green-pepper sauce).

We had a large free range chicken and cut it in 8 pieces but the breast portions were in fact oversized (not necessarily a bad thing) meaning that they took longer to cook than the other pieces.

So anyways... what I actually did was:

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Poulet Sauté Basquaise : Chicken Basque Style

Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 2,25 kg chicken [5 #] cut neatly in 8 pieces (8 if you keep the little wings - I did)
• salt
• pepper, white, freshly ground
• olive oil
• 1 T butter (helps the browning apparently)
  
  
• 2 onions, medium, julienne [fine slices]
• 6 green peppers, large, julienne (½ kg [¼ #]) (a length similar to the onions please)
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed


• 1 C stock, approx
• ¼ kg tomatoes [3 big ones] peeled, seeded, brunoise [diced] (I used a can due to the current tomato/salmonella scare)
• 1 bouquet garnis [herb packet] (celery, thyme, parsley, bayleaf, whole peppercorns)
  
  
• 150 gr very good ham, dry cured, slices [5 oz]

Procedure

1. If you have a whole chicken… cut it up; salt & pepper the pieces
2. Oil into a pan, medium high; fry pieces really well - more than you usually do. You want these good and brown. Fry the larger pieces longer so they'll be pre-cooked more
3. Meanwhile
   • Crush the garlic
   • Devein, deseed and julienne the green peppers
   • Julienne, very finely, the onions
     
     
4. Remove browned chicken from the pan; put in the veggies & garlic, stir
   • Maybe add some oil if there doesn't seem to be enough chicken fat
5. Cover, cook on medium-low until they're soft but not browned, stirring occasionally
6. Add back the chicken pieces and their juices
7. Add tomatoes, bouquet garnis and stock (to just cover)
8. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer. Cover the pan and simmer until done/tender (about a half hour or, perhaps, 30 minutes)
   
   
9. Remove chicken again and, separately, pretty much all the vegetables. Toss the bouquet garnis out
10. Meanwhile, a little oil into a pan and fry the slices of ham slightly (this is not bacon we're talking about)
11. Reduce the chicken cooking liquid until it's saucey; coating the back of a spoon
    
    
12. Place the ham slices neatly on a plate (around the edge, maybe), arrange the vegetables inside that, top with the chicken, and pour sauce over the whole lot

Done

Notes

1. As always, these recipes are sourced from my copy of - Le Cordon Bleu: At Home

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Le Cordon Bleu at Home: Lesson 1: Roast Chicken

I'm trying some recipes from my (maybe) favorite book (Le Cordon Bleu: At Home)- which aligns with my course at Le Cordon Bleu a few years back. I have a vague plan of doing one a week or so and working the way through the 90 (sets of recipes in there). Probably won't happen but it's a sort of cute idea anyway.

The first one is centered around Roast Chicken (Poulet Roti). Which came out looking like this...




not bad.
I failed to follow the notes I made from the course (see the 2nd #9 listed in the Course Notes blog)

The whole thing I did today will be posted over the next couple of days (this post being but a teaser for the ones following).

The menu:

• Cucumber Salad with Mint
• Poulet Roti
• Spring Peas with Lettuce, Chervil & Onions
• Fruit Salad with Cointreau

oddly enough there was also Patatas Barvas served; although not from the Cordon Bleu recipe

Basque Chicken: Poulet Sauté Basquaise: Pollo Escuaro (Basque, Vascongado)

In the new PC I still lack an image editing application. these are As-Is from the phone.

So, I got back to finally cooking something this weekend. The last two weeks have been pretty slim pickings. This is another one-pot dish - use a big cooking pan or maybe a wok would work ( needs a lid).

Note: this is being written on my new portable which has a Spanish keyboard so there may be a typo or two (or three). Great little machine; has dual processors and seems lightning fast.

Basque Chicken

Serves: 4 (or 6) (designed for 6 but seems to only serve 3 or 4 around here)

Ingredients

• 2 kg chicken [4½ #] chopped in 6 pieces (8 if you keep the little wings - I did)
• salt
• pepper, white, freshly ground
• olive oil (and, if you're French, an equal amount of butter. I'm not. I didn't)
  
• 2 onions, medium, julienne [fine slices]
• 2 green peppers, large, julienne (½ kg [¼ #]) (a length similar to the onions please)
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
  
• 1 C dry white wine (boxed), approx
• ¼ kg tomatoes [1 C] peeled, seeded, brunoise [diced] (okay, I confess, I used a can)
• 1 bouquet garnis [herb packet] (thyme, parsley, bayleaf, whole peppercorns)
  
• 150 gr very good ham, dry cured, slices [5 oz]

Procedure

1. If you have a whole chicken… cut it up; salt & pepper the pieces
2. Oil into a pan, medium high; fry pieces really well - more than you usually do. You want these good and brown
3. Meanwhile
   • Crush the garlic
   • Devein, deseed and julienne the green peppers
   • Julienne, very finely, the onions (avoid cutting a chunk out of your pinky - advice I failed, myself, to take)
4. Remove browned chicken from the pan; put in the veggies & garlic, stir
   • Maybe add some oil if there doesn't seem to be enough
5. Cover, cook on medium-low until they're soft but not browned, stirring occasionally
6. Add back the chicken pieces and their juices
7. Add tomatoes, boquet garnis and wine (to just cover)
8. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer. Cover the pan and simmer until done/tender (about a half hour or 30 minutes)
9. Remove chicken again and, separately, pretty much all the vegetables. Toss the bouquet garnis out
10. Meanwhile, a little oil into a pan and fry the slices of ham slightly (this is not bacon we're talking about)
11. Reduce the chicken cooking liquid until it's saucey; coating the back of a spoon
12. Place the ham slices neatly on a plate (probably fan shaped), top with the chicken, arrange the vegetables next to it and pour sauce over the whole lot

Done

Notes

1. My chicken was ecological - they often taste quite a bit better than the regular ones. Grain fed, running around; get a chicken with a pedigree if you can.
2. Save the none meat bearing pieces of chicken for making stock. Freeze it for later if you're not making it now. Or, make it now, while the chicken is frying and you're cutting vegetables. Use some instead of part of the wine maybe.
3. A bouquet garnis usually also contains some celery leaves and some leeks but I didn't have any
4. The ham is a critical component - do not omit. Me, I didn't used slices - mine was chopped (sort of diced)
5. Serve with rice, especially rice pilaf - something to soak up some of the sauce
6. Sourced from my old favorite - Le Cordon Bleu: At Home; with barely any changes. I wonder if I'm violating some copyright law.

Chicken in Salsa [Sauce]

Finally got back to actual cooking after the vacation. Typical of the region of Rioja. Simple, but with a couple of touches that make it special.

Pollo en Salsa [Chicken in Sauce]

Serves: 3

Ingredients

• 3 chicken thighs (or 4 even; or 6, no big deal)
  
• ½ C olive oil (virgin) (maybe more)
  
• 1 onion, fine brunoise [dice]
  
• 1 leek, fine brunoise
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 pinch saffron
• 1 T parsley, fresh
• 2 T bread crumbs (or 1 slice stale bread, without crust)
• 2 C dry white wine (a box is fine)
• Bouquet garnis (spice bundle)
• Thyme (dried, from my thyme bush)
  
• Laurel (dried, my laurel tree)
  
• Parsley (fresh, the pot on the back porch)
  
• ½ C water (more or less)
  

Procedure

1. Oil into a pan & brown the chicken very well (it won't get any browner later so this is your only chance to get the color right)
2. Take out the chicken
   
3. Put in the onions and leeks (in the am oil), brown these - probably on lower heat than the chicken though (10 minutes or so)
   
4. Remove onions & leeks (I sieve them - save oil for the garlic)
• Put into a large mortar (or use a stick mixer)
• Smash it up
  
5. Fry the garlic, brown
   
• Add to mortar
6. Add parsley, saffron and bread crumbs to mortar
• Smoosh it up
  
7. Chicken goes back in the pan (skin side down)
   
• When you hear it frying again...
8. Sprinkle with one cup of white wine
9. Add in the mess from the mortar & stir around
10. Add the spice bundle
11. Bring to a boil
12. Sprinkle another cup of wine
13. Add water to half way up the chicken pieces
14. Cook for 25 minutes, simmering vigorously, unncovered
• Turn over half way along
  
15. Remove chicken to a (hot) serving plate; toss the bouquet garnis out
16. Reduce the sauce, if you have to, if it's watery
17. Sieve the sauce over the chicken; pushing it through the sieve with the back of a spoon
18. Keep the veggies remaining in the sieve and serve as a sort of (very tasty) garnish next to the chicken
19. Dash some parsley leaves over the whole thing
    

Notes

1. Olive oil is good for you; don't be afraid to use it as a food (avoid butter, and really realy avoid margarine - - and let's not talk about vegetable oil)
2. Using a mortar crushes the onions and leeks better and probably releases more flavour than zipping them with a stick mixer (which chops/cuts them)
   
3. You can make a spice bundle or use a spice bag for the bouquet
   
4. The chicken is done when the juices don't run pink when you poke the meat with a skewer
5. If doing more than 3 pieces use some more oil
6. Bread crumbs are the thickener for the sauce, don't skimp
7. Special touches included
1. The saffron
2. Using the residual muck, left after sieving the sauce, as a garnish
   

Roast a Chicken

More than anything this is a placeholder post to remind me about this interesting cooking video site.

Good things about this one: simple recipe, uses kitchen gadgets, a nice extra touch (pears), Christopher Walken, and a cat

Chicken Madeira & "Lobster" Avocado Salad

Suddenly I had to make lunch yesterday. No planning went into this; I just popped out to the store and hoped for the best - - and a little bit of inspiration.

A fish & fruit salad (fake lobster tails and avocados with an avocado vinaigrette


and a Chicken in Madeira Tomato Sauce

Avocado Lobster Salad

Ingredients

serves 2

• mixed greens
• some rucula [rocket]
• 2 lobster tails
• 1 avocado (sliced longways)
  
• avocado vinaigrette
• 5 T virgin olive oil
• 1 T red wine vinegar
• ¼ avocado (the bits left over from slicing the avocado)
• ¼ t salt

Procedure

1. put greens on a plate
2. distribute rucula around the rim
3. place lobster tail on top - - sliced thinly
   
4. surround, symmetrically, with avocado slices
5. blend oil, vinegar, avocado bits and salt
1. drizzle over the salad

Notes

1. Using enough salt is really important in the vinaigrette. People tend to under-salt this kind of dressing
   
2. A stick blender is ideal for making the vinaigrette

Chicken in Madeira Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

serves 3

• 3 T olive oil
  
• 3 chicken thighs
• 3 T Madeira wine (or port or some type of fortified wine; I used a light sweet port)
  
• 1 C tomato sauce (homemade - sofrito)
• 1 C tomato pureé
  
• 1 onion
• salt
  
• 2 cloves garlic
• red pepper
• cumin (a pinch)
  
• ¼ C water (fresh from the tap)
• 1 red pepper (deseeded)
  
• lemon juice (from a half lemon - fresh)
  
• thyme - fresh from your back porch
  

Procedure

1. Oil into a pan
2. fry the thighs, skin side, until very browned (5, 6, 7 minutes or so)
3. fry the other side until really brown (another 6 minutes)
4. remove the pieces from the pan
5. pour off excess fats & oils
6. deglaze the pan with the port (Madeira)
7. add the tomato sauce
• bring up to a boil/good simmer
8. add enough water so that it's soupy
9. return chicken to the pan - skin side up
   
• get back up to a good simmer
10. Add lemon juice and the red pepper
    
11. Cover with a loose lid and reduce to a slow simmer - for 10 minutes to three quarters of an hour
12. Remove chicken to the serving plate
• Cover loosely with aluminium foil
13. Remove the red pepper
    
14. Reduce tomato sauce so that it's saucy, not soupy
15. Pour over/around chicken pieces
16. Sprinkle a little (very little) bit of thyme leaves over the presentation
    

Notes

1. Browning the chicken, very well, in just a bit of oil will result in crusty brown bits let in the pan bottom; which is what you want; so that you can get it, and its accompanying flavour, into the sauce by deglazing the pan with the port
2. Degalzing is: pouring a liquid into the hot pan and scraping up the flavourful brown stuff that was left from the previous cooking step.
3. Adding water to the tomato sauce before simmering the chicken is to make sure that there's enough liquid to keep the sauce from burning on the bottom of the pan. You could use a really good chicken stock instead of water - - that would be nice
   
4. Chicken Madeira often has mushrooms in it - mine didn't today
   

Poulet Papillote: Chicken in a Pocket

Poulet Papillote is French. I don't know why I think of this dish in French - but I do. Probably inspired by this blog entry by another Cordon Bleu student - Ms. Glaze. I wish I could find Chicken from Bresse (in France) here in Spain. There was a famous chicken shop across the street from our Paris apartment that sold them - - I miss it.

I baked a chicken the other day. Wanting a low-fat variant I figured I would cook it in foil so that the fat would escape but the closed package would keep the meat moist.

Updated: I forgot to mention the celery

Ingredients

R-L: Chicken, salt (the jar at the back), aluminium [aluminum] foil, leeks, carrot, celery, fresh onion, lemon, the pink things are Food Loops, olive oil. Missing: lemon grass, pepper

Before wrapping

Wash it. Salt and Pepper inside. Stuff with the lemon and chopped ingredients, tie with the pink wrappy things, oil it up, some onion goes outside

Cooked

Cooked, wrapped in doubled up foil, for 2 hours at 175C [350F]. This was a 2 kg bird [5#]

Ingredients

• 2 kg chicken
• salt
• pepper
• ½ lemon (had been previously squeezed for some other recipe)
  
• 2 leeks
• 2 celery sticks
  
• 1 carrot
  
• 2 fresh onions
• 3 sticks lemon grass (the secret ingredient)
• olive oil (virgin)
  

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 175C [350F]
   
2. chop veggies
3. wash the chicken (reportedly creates a crispier skin)
4. trim excess fat (if any)
   
5. salt & pepper inside the bird
6. put ½ lemon in the cavity
7. put in the chopped vegetables
8. wrap the legs up
9. oil the bird
10. onions outside too
11. wrap in doubled up foil
• seal well
12. into the oven for 2 hours
13. open up the package
14. broil for 7 minutes (to brown an otherwise white chicken)
15. Leave to stand for 10 minutes out of the oven (to cool to handling temperature)
16. Lift out, leaving the fat behind
    

- Done -

Notes

1. The lemon grass changes, subtly, the taste of the whole thing. It's quite useful to have around
2. The vegetable selection was just what I had in the bottom of the cooler. I would have put in zucchini too if I'd had a nice one.
3. Two hours was lots of time. Could have been 90 minutes - - or three hours. This method of cooking in foil is not time sensitive.
4. You can eat the stuffing from inside the bird. Delish.
   

Alitas de Pollo: Chicken Wings: Oriental Sauce

This post is loaded with photos; while I try out my new phone/camera.

We all know how to do this one but here's mine anyway. This is a "what I actually did" post - with a few ruminations on what I should have done.

Weight analysis (I am, after all, sort of an engineer):

• Packages: gross (actual weight with packaging): 1020 grams (2 packages)
• As stated on labels: 991 g
  
• Net (actual weighed weight): 981 g (evidently they're cheating a little on the weights)
  
• Once trimmed (tips removed): 882 g (not bad, only 11% wastage)

Ingredients

• 900 grams chicken wings (in pieces) [2#]
• 4 T hoisin sauce
  
• 1 T oyster sauce
  
• 1 T Honey
• 1 T rice wine vinegar
• 1 T soy might be a good idea - but I didn't
• ½ t salt
• ½ t pepper
• ¼ onion (scallions or green onion would be best) (I used none, 'cause I was out of it)
• 1 t ginger powder (fresh would be better)
• 3 cloves garlic
• 3 T H2O (on looking at the results I'll leave this out next time)
• 1 red pepper

Procedure (with pictures)

Take some chicken. In this case, 2 packages


Which will look like this one unpacked


Chop off the pointy tip of the wings at the joint (save for making broth some day)


And you'll get this


Cut wings in two at the joint gets you two "wings" from each wing


Clean up any little pin feathers left over


Mix (stick mixer) the ingredients (except the chicken pieces) then
Marinate chicken 15 minutes or more (this is them marinating); stir around half way through


Oil a baking pan and bake wings for 30 minutes in a 190 C oven [395F]


Turn and baste halfway through (thanks Elizabeth for the silicon basting brush)


Broil for 5 minutes more to crisp them and you'll get this (before)


After

Procedure (in one block)

1. Chop off the pointy tip of the wings at the joint (save for making broth some day)
2. Cut wings in two at the joint
3. Mix (stick mixer) the ingredients (except the chicken pieces)
4. Marinate chicken 15 minutes
5. Meanwhile: Preheat oven to 190C [375F]
• Wash the dishes you got dirty
• Empty the dishwasher
• Crack a beer
  or even better
  
• Crack a beer
  
• Empty the dishwasher
• Wash the dishes you got dirty
6. Oil a baking pan and bake chicken wings for 30 minutes
7. Turn once and baste with the marinade
8. Broil for 5 minutes more to crisp them up

Done

Notes

1. Put them on a rack if you want to keep them out of their own fats
2. Don't use the marinade as a dipping sauce. Make more if you want to but the mariande's been contaminated with chicken juice and you don't want to be eating that.

Lemon-Ginger Chicken on a Stick: Brochetas de Pollo

The pic predates my discovery of the macro-flash setting on my old camera but, still, it's not too bad at all.

Dead simple. A marinade, some meat, and a little bit of "technique" in the way it's cooked. Good for diets too (low-fat/calories). Scales well; double, triple or quadruple the recipe with no problem.

Ingredients

• ½ kg chicken breasts, boneless, skinless, cubes (for skewers) [1#]
• 2 onions, medium, cut in ¼s or 1/6ths (chicken-sized chunks)
• 3 lemons, juice of, & the pieces
• 5 cm ginger [2"]
• 2 T soy sauce
• 2 T vinegar (I used red wine type)
• 2 red chili peppers (spilt & deseeded)
  
• ½ t salt
• ½ t pepper, white, ground
• 12 brochettes [wooden skewers] (not really long ones)

Procedure

1. Cut chicken into cubes for the brochettes; about 1½cm [3/4"] on a side
2. Cut the onion in half the long way (top to root) then each half into sections that are about the same size as the chicken pieces. The onions will all flake apart and you end up with flat onion layers that are the same size as the chicken pieces.
3. Juice the lemons, ¼ the skins and toss into the juice
   
4. Slice the ginger (not super fine) toss into the juice (your mostly be removing this later)
   
5. Add the soy, vinegar and chili peppers to the juice (this is now officially a marinade)
6. Add salt & pepper to the mix
7. Put in the chicken pieces and the onion
• mix
• cover
• refrigerate for 2-6 hours (or a day)
  
• muck about the mixture a couple of times while marinating
  
8. Assemble the chicken brochettes [skewers]
1. slice or two of onion
2. chunk of chicken
3. onion
4. chicken
5. lather, rinse, repeat
6. end with onion pieces
7. Do not skewer the ginger, lemon peel or chilis
   
9. This can be pre-prepared up to this point up to a day in advance (even two days)
   
10. Fry the brochettes over high heat (for color), in batches - set aside when well colored (in a little tiny bit of oil)
    
11. Return the brochettes to a medium-low heat, cover, and cook them through (another 10 minutes probably). Don't overdo it.
    
12. == Done ==
    

Notes

1. Variants include using red and green pepper slices along with the onions
2. Use the chili peppers. It doesn't make things too hot and spicy but does a a touch of flavour
   
3. Brown/burn the chicken really well when coloring it up. You don't want the meat to be white and dry so use high heat. This is not to cook it; it's to add color and sweeten up the meat with a little carmelization.
   
4. You can finish the brochettes in a 175C [350F] oven instead of on top of the stove; that's what the professional kitchen usually does
5. Don't overcook the chicken so that it's dry. Chicken can be both flavorful and moist; yes, really it can.
6. No need to presoak the skewers because they're not going to be grilled